A few patients have concerns that when I operate to open their abdomen that air would make the cancer to spread. Usually the story goes as "my grandmother went to surgery for cancer. The surgeon opened her abdomen and closed. Then she died a few days later because the cancer spread faster".
I searched the literature and could not find the scientific basis for this. However, the story may have a merit. I could only speculate that the grandmother's cancer was too extensive that the surgeon decided to open, (may be biopsy), then closed the abdomen again. She probably died from the extensive cancer or cancer complications (such as blood clot), but not from the air that entered her abdomen.
I searched the literature and could not find the scientific basis for this. However, the story may have a merit. I could only speculate that the grandmother's cancer was too extensive that the surgeon decided to open, (may be biopsy), then closed the abdomen again. She probably died from the extensive cancer or cancer complications (such as blood clot), but not from the air that entered her abdomen.
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